FURST UP

Comedian Steve Furst , a key element in cinema’s hugely popular “Orange Wednesday” ads (left below), reports on life and the movies.

Furst says, "I have recently been having encounters with packs of kids bored from another tough day's truanting down at the shopping mall. ‘It's that bald bloke,’ they bay, ‘You know.. .the one from those ads….the funny one’, and as my cheeks redden and my pace quickens, I think of nothing except ‘Get the fuck away, NOW!’

I sense that it’s only a matter of time before I am chased down some darkened alleyway by them and surrounded as each takes their best shot and hurl obscenities at me.

In the mid 80s, myself and a few others started to shout at the man who was in the Hoffmeister cinema ads at that time and who knows what damage we might have caused him if my Mum hadn’t been picking me up!

However, most times it is lovely to be recognised for one’s work. The Orange ‘Gold Spot’ films have been going for nearly four years and there are two main reasons I can hold my head up high and say I love doing them. Firstly, they are really very good and, secondly, people genuinely look forward to the next one.

Oh, yes, then there’s the cash. That’s number 3.

And there’s a number 4 if you count how I look forward to being flown over to LA to glimpse inside Hollywood for a few moments.

My working relationship with Brennan Brown, who plays The Boss, Mr Dresden, is fabulous but our methods differ. In Britain, in comedy, we tend to take things somewhat casually. Sure we value the written words and turn up when expected but there is often an air of tom-foolery and all-round japery.

But with Mr Brown, things are altogether much more serious. His relationship to the directors is very reverential and to the stars……don’t get me started.

Before takes, he tells me that he needs time to get ‘into the zone.’ I’ve never been in the zone. Shit, I don’t even have a permit for the zone. Still, our differing working methods seem to gel with ease.

Then there is the amusement I get from watching how uber-unionised the technicians are. I like nothing better than carrying a lamp or a boom after a shot has been completed only to be on the receiving end of a legion of tool-belted techs shouting at me ‘Put that down! You’re not in the Union!’ Bless.

As I write this, I have just heard we maybe heading for a fifth year. I cross everything in anticipation. I have tax to be paid and a wife that needs feeding.

But I will say this; I cannot change your tariff or mend your Sim card or do anything else to help you with your phone. I am a comic actor, not a boffin.

If you do need that kind of assistance, pop down to the Orange shop in Covent Garden. As it happens, that chap from the Hoffmeister ads works there now."

Editor's Note: Steve Furst features in the stylish new short film "Medium Rare" which is reviewed in the Short Films section.

Filed September 21, 2007